Images of Sangatte: Political representations of asylum seeking in France and the UK

The Sangatte reception centre in north-east France, a facility opened in September 1999 to provide food and shelter to homeless migrants in the region, provides the case study for this analysis. Because migrants from the centre frequently attempted to illegally travel to the UK where they would claim asylum, the centre became a source of controversy between the two countries.

It is argued that negotiations between the two countries were constructed in ways to achieve the particular aims of the governments of the UK and France; respectively, the closure of the centre and the introduction of tighter asylum policies in the UK. Through an analysis of political discourse, the paper examines how politicians represented the centre and its residents, and relates these findings to concerns that asylum policy in Europe is becoming increasingly more restrictive.